When we met Ralph Glasser, he mentioned his most famous book Growing Up in the Gorbals.

We decided to buy the book and found it to be stunningly good.

Ralph lived in the Gorbals, a Glasgow slum of the sort that can be found in Calcutta.

In the Gorbals many children suffered from rickets and went about barefoot.

Shared toilets in the Gorbals often overflowed."Rats and mice moved about freely, seeming to share the accomodation with us grudgingly..."

At the age of eight, Ralph was in tears when he learnt that his little friend Charlie was leaving Glasgow and going off to live in Russia.

The Russia of 1927 was supposed to be some kind of Utopia.Russia 1927

But Ralph was not a believer in Utopias.

Ralph's mother had died of cancer.

Gorbals by Bert Hardy. "The streets were slippery with refuse and often with drunken vomit. It was a place of grime and poverty"Ralph went to the station to see Charlie off.

Ralph did not accompany Charlie's family onto the platform as he could not afford the platform ticket.

"Ralph's eyes were so full of tears that he could see Charlie only dimly through them...

"Charlie pressed against the iron trellis gates, and stared and stared and poured tears on to the cold metal."

Russia in the 1920sRalph wrote to Charlie many times.

Months went by.No letter came.

Ralph was not a believer in Utopias.

Gorbals by Bert Hardy.Ralph Glasser, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, has been compared to Zola and Gorky.Ralph Glasser won a scholarship to Oxford and became a writer, an economist, a psychologist and an adviser to developing countries.Ralph Glasser - Telegraph

Gorbals

Ralph Glasser's memoirs "tackle the Big Questions, from the meaning of life to the travails of love: rhetorical questions abound, as do capitalised references to Destiny and Providence."

Gorbals. "The Victorian building, in red sandstone blackened by smoke…was in decay. Splintered and broken floorboards sometimes gave way under your feet. Interior walls carried patches of stain from a long succession of burst pipes."

Ralph Glasser was born in 1916.

Gorbals by Bert Hardy

Ralph lived on the top floor of a three-storey tenement in Warwick Street.

"The lavatory on the landing, shared with several other families, frequently overflowed, and young Ralph shared a bed with his parents in an alcove off the kitchen.

"His mother died when he was six, his two older sisters decamped as soon as they could, and Ralph was left alone with his father, whose addiction to gambling made life still more perilous."

Emin's father, Aras Agalorov, is a Russian real estate developer who has been partners with Donald Trump

A leaked / published e-mail from 3 June 2016, from Rob Goldstone, to Donald Trump Jr., says this:

« Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.

« The Crown Prosecutor [sic] of Russia met with his [Emin's] father Aras this morning, and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate HIllary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father [Donald Trump].

This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin. I can also send this info to your father [Donald Trump] via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first. »

Readers interested in Aangirfan's recent blog entry 'Behind the Facade', containing multiple links to the research of Dr Sally Baker on coordinated VIP child abuse (http://aanirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/behind-facade.html), are highly encouraged to peruse this reading list of articles published by 'Scallywag' magazine in the 1990s:

Reading these historical Scallywag articles in conjunction with the research of Dr Sally Baker and Aangirfan, readers will develop a conception of the extent of the corruption in the present Tory and Labour parties, in which many child abusers still serve.

Grinding poverty destroys people in so many ways. I am reminded of a poignant quote from W Somerset Maugham, "It is not true that suffering ennobles the character, happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive."Yesterday, I just discovered (for the first time) a boyhood acquaintance of mine from the "hood" a working class New York city suburb, Robert McKeon's supposed suicide. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203418/Robert-McKeon-One-Americas-private-equity-bosses-kills-aged-58.htmlIt's been 5 years since his death and I knew nothing about it.He was obviously driven to succeed. Which he did.He climbed to the top with sheer force of will/ determination against formidable odds. He had it all. I do not know the details of his supposed suicide but I sincerely doubt that is what happened. He, in my mind tangled, with scorpions. Vindictiveness can ultimately lead to murder. I grew up literally with a close friend of his. We parted during our college years over Israel. He supposedly supported Ireland but simultaneously supported the Zionist Entity. To me, that was unacceptable. Here's a picture of BOTH Bobby and my closer friend I grew up with (it is the small black and white team picture) http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=159891234 Bobby is in second row second to the right. My boyhood next door neighbor top row first on the left. We were all from working class milieu's. Our father's, utterly working class, no college.

"Bobby" McKeon's ambition blinded him. His war profiteering to me, borderline criminal. It boggles my mind really. As a younger man when I sorta knew him, that ambition was not apparent to me. Although I do recall my next door neighbor speaking admiring the fact that he would eventually climb to the top of Wall Street. He was right. However, look where it left him. I am left pondering. Was Bobby the hard working ambitious lad an ennobled character? Those closest to him would say yes. I do not know. The war profiteering deeply disturbs me. He was in bed with these same war profiteers who probably killed him. My final observation for now is Bobby's socio economic origins colored his judgements . Were they based on vindictive motives? Who knows? To me, making money killing brown skinned people in the third world was wrong. Bobby should have known better.